Wonder who helped Beckwith murder Evers?

6:24 PM,
Jun. 11, 2013

On Feb. 5, 1994, Malcolm McMillin, right, escorts Byron De La Beckwith from the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson following De La Beckwith's conviction for the 1963 murder of NAACP leader Medgar Evers.

Written by

Bill Minor
Contributing columnist

The assassination of Medgar Evers in June 1963 was virtually inevitable. Why? Because Evers, a native Mississippian, had arisen as the first significant black threat to the state's revered institution of white supremacy.

I had seen racial tension rise to a fever pitch ever since the NAACP field secretary Evers in early May launched his long-anticipated "Jackson Movement." Blacks organized by Evers peaceably picketed and boycotted downtown businesses.

But the Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in on May 28 had exploded in ugly violence. Meantime, Evers won an FCC order to appear on ...